President Zardari appoints Justice Yahya Afridi as Chief Justice for a term of three years, starting from October 26
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Oct 23rd, 2024) President Asif Ali Zardari has approved the appointment of Justice Yahya Afridi as the chief Justice of Pakistan.
According to the statement issued by the Presidency, President Zardari appointed Justice Yahya Afridi as Chief Justice for a term of three years, starting from October 26.
The President made this appointment under Articles 175A(3), 177, and 179 of the Constitution. He also approved that Justice Yahya Afridi will take the oath of office as Chief Justice on October 26.
It is noteworthy that a 12-member parliamentary committee for judges’ appointments approved Justice Yahya Afridi’s appointment as Chief Justice of Pakistan a day earlier. Following this, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recommended the appointment to the President.
A Look at the Career of Justice Yahya Afridi
Justice Yahya Afridi, a Supreme Court judge, was born on January 23, 1965, in Dera Ismail Khan. He completed his early education at Aitchison College, Lahore, and graduated from Government College, Lahore, before obtaining a Master’s degree in Economics from Punjab University, Lahore.
He was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue an LLM degree from Jesus College, University of Cambridge. Justice Afridi began his legal career in 1990 as a High Court advocate and started practicing in the Supreme Court in 2004.
He also served as the Assistant Advocate General for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In 2010, he was appointed as an additional judge of the Peshawar High Court and was made a permanent judge on March 15, 2012. On December 30, 2016, Justice Afridi took the oath as Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court.
He was elevated to the Supreme Court of Pakistan on June 28, 2018.
Justice Afridi has heard various cases in the higher judiciary, including being part of the larger bench in the case related to the special seats of the Sunni Ittehad Council, where he penned a dissenting note. He was also a member of the nine-judge larger bench of the Supreme Court in the presidential reference against the execution of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
